192 HOW TO KEEP BEES 



The reprodiictive organs. — ^The internal repro- 

 ductive organs are situated in the abdomen; there is 

 a set on each side, but the two sets open by a common 

 duct, whose outlet is at the hind end of the body. 



The reproductive organs of the female are shown on 

 Plate XXVI (a), Fig. 1. There are two ovaries (o), 

 one on each side of the body. Each ovary consists of 

 a large number of parallel egg-tubes, within which 

 the eggs are developed. The egg-tubes of each ovary 

 open into an oviduct (od). The two oviducts unite 

 and form a single tube on the middle line of the body; 

 this is the vagina; the vagina leads to the external 

 opening of the system. Communicating with the 

 vagina, there is a sac-like pouch, the spermatheca, 

 which is the reservoir for the seminal fluid; this is 

 filled at the time of pairing, and the spermatozoa may 

 remain alive in it for several years. 



Each egg- tube produces many eggs. As the eggs 

 increase in size, they pass towards the oviduct. 

 When the egg is fully developed a shell is formed 

 about it. This shell has a minute opening through 

 it at one end; this is the micropyle. At the time the 

 egg is laid a spermatozoon may pass from the sper- 

 matheca, where thousands of them are stored, into 

 the egg through the micropyle, and thus the egg is 

 fertilised. 



With most animals, the egg must be fertilised 

 in order that it may develop. But with bees, both 

 fertilised and unfertilised eggs develop, the former 

 into females, that is, workers or queens, the latter 

 into males, that is, drones. 



